Cross Campus: 01.26.09

A gas leak on Temple and Crown streets Sunday morning closed down the building in which WYBC Yale Radio is located. Police and firefighters blocked the entrance to the building, preventing students from meeting there. According to an e-mail from Sean Owczarek ’11, general manager of WYBC, the leak “will put us seriously off schedule for the launch of the X,” the WYBC’s new Web stream.

A fire at 33 Edgewood Ave. has rendered the house temporarily uninhabitable. The residence is occupied by five Yale undergraduates, who are “just crashing on friends’ couches for now and hoping that we can get in [the house] within the next few days,” as Grace Oedel ’10 put it.

On Friday night, Kate Kraft ’10, a Sillimander and staff photographer for the News, was selected by a committee of her peers to be the new drum major of the Yale Precision Marching Band. Prior to becoming drum major, Kraft played trumpet, trombone and drums in the band. She replaces outgoing drum major Rosa Li ’09.

Contrary to a report in the Herald on Friday, GetFreeCups is not going out of business. The only change is that students must now pick up their own cups — since founders Ryan Ashayeri ’10 and Anichya Gujral ’10 did not have access to every entryway, they were having trouble making their 100+ weekly deliveries. The free cups can now be picked up from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday in the lobby of LC.

In fact, they may even spread their reign: The two entrepreneurs plan to begin distributing cups at Southern Connecticut State University in the middle of the week.

Tonight, Commons will be overtaken during dinner by Red Madness, an event sponsored by Chinese Undergraduate Students at Yale and the Chinese American Students Association to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The event will feature a speech from Yale College Dean Mary Miller. Stir, Commons’ Asian-themed section, will be open for a special New Year’s dinner.

Three Yalies are among the nation’s top 25 most influential liberals, according to Forbes magazine: Paul Krugman ’74, Fareed Zakaria ’86 and David Shipley DIV ’42 GRD ’42.

This day in Yale history

1967 The Yale Republican Club set out on a search party for Alderman Noah C. Perry (D-Ward 22). The alderman had missed 17 out of the 23 aldermanic meetings in 1966. As the Yale GOP president, Laurence K. Gould Jr. ’67, said, “Perry must be missing; therefore, we decided to go out hunting for him and urge him to stop playing hooky.” To find him, they rang the doorbell of Perry’s house and looked behind the surrounding shrubbery. Perry could not be reached for comment.